Why open source needs the RIAA to lose
THE FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION (FSF) has been one of the surprise backers of people who the RIAA thinks should pay massive fines for sharing copyrighted music files online.
Joel Tenenbaum, who is being sued by RIAA member companies for copyright infringement, has appreciated receiving the support of the FSF, and that has set the RIAA to whingeing.
However John Sullivan, Operations Manager at the FSF told Torrent Freak that the RIAA's antics are inimical to free software and its technology. He thinks that if the cartel gets its way then the free software movement could be scuppered.
Sullivan filed a friend of the court brief in Sony BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum arguing that the RIAA's theory of statutory damage awards is unconstitutional.
He said that the lawsuits represent a concerted attempt to rewrite copyright law in a way that threatens to undermine the ultimate goals of the free software movement. The RIAA's legal theories are also being used to justify the use of DRM and other measures to monitor and control the flow of information over the internet.
Sullivan thinks that if left unopposed, these lawsuits could create a culture in which people become afraid to share, presuming sharing to be theft.
The RIAA agrees, saying that the FSF is an organisation "dedicated to eliminating restrictions on copying, redistribution, and modifying computer programs, and classic intellectual property." In short it thinks that the free software movement aims to liberalise copyright law, which it thinks places free software squarely on the side of illegal file-sharers.
This argument is cobblers and wrong, of course, because free software itself relies on strong copyright laws to protect its requirement that the source code of all downstream modifications to free software be freely redistributed, thus preserving both the original authors' and all subsequent users' rights.
It also means that ultimately the RIAA and its ilk must work to shut down the free software movement to make sure their proprietary companies and their faltering business models dependent upon exploiting artificial scarcity are protected.
This is bad news for US open sauce software proponents, as it seems that the RIAA has managed to get one of its sock puppets in the form of Vice President Joe Biden into a position of power in Washington.
Biden has assured the MPAA that President Obama will find the "right" copyright czar and Obama has appointed RIAA lead attorneys Tom Perrelli and Donald Verrilli to associate and deputy associate attorney general positions. We have also seen the Obama administration attempt to influence the policy of a NATO ally so that it toes the RIAA line on software copyright.
The fear is that with its puppets in place, the RIAA can skew copyright law in its favour, with the result that proprietary companies get protected at the expense of software freedom.
Sullivan said that already we have seen cases of schoolteachers who have assumed that a student handing out GNU Linux disks in class was breaking the law, and he fears that this will just be the tip of the iceburg.
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most from the RIAA failing are the important parts of the music industry - the musicians and their audience.
The market for music will be a lot bigger when 75% of the revenue music generates is not wated on these parasites.
If you care about artists and art, stop giving your money to the cartels who cheat the artists and are lobbying to take control of our technology and want to monitor your computing and internet activities. It is that simple. If you support the artist purchase songs directly from them at their website (typically the labels don't get any of that money). Or send them a money gift directly. How cool would it be for the artist you love to receive a check directly from you? Why would you fund the cartels that have forced DMCA like laws on us and who lobby to extend copyright to infinity and who are busy working with ISPs to monitor your internet activities? The only way to stop this is to bankrupt them and free the artists. Wake up!
Well done, youve discovered the first rule of copyright law: it only counts as infringement when its *their* copyrights being infringed!
How many times has the MAFIAA, BSA et al been caught using pirated software? Many. Moral high ground? I dont think so.
Meanwhile, if you even think of sharing a single song, they have the right to pwn your computer and fine you shooby-doop trillion dollars. Even if they dont own the song! Proportionate? Hardly.
And if you write something using the sweat of your own brow and try to give it away - as is your right - well, then you must be some sort of criminal COMMUNIST or something, obviously.
You see how this works now?
Its got nothing to do with any legal - or even moral - justification, and everything to do with a mad power grab by reckless greed barons who dont care who or what they destroy.
(And, of course, an utterly venal legal system that lets them get away with it.)
Don't forget that Obama's DOJ is littered with filthy RIAA rats.
I overheard a student where I work offering to copy 6 TB of movies and mp3 to another. The answer "I haven't got enough space yet"
Interesting result for RIAA and the like.
re: offering to copy 6 TB of movies and mp3
It's easy to visual kids surreptitiously exchanging thumb drives on the playground. In a few years when their capacity hits 100GB how much will each of those exchanges be worth in fines if fully prosecuted? A billion, $10 billion?
I once did the math, and the average paperback book is only about 3.5MB, so we'll see if the paperback industry makes the same mistakes with DRM when e-books become more popular. Though, I've heard their profit margins are a lot smaller. Not really sure if that's true.
Let's parse this, shall we?
THE FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION (FSF) has been one of the surprise backers of people who the RIAA thinks should pay massive fines for sharing copyrighted music files online.
So, the FSS is a suprise backer of people. What people? FSS backs people who think the RIAA should pay massive fines. Why should the RIAA pay massive fines? For sharing copyrighted music files online.
So, this article reveals that the RIAA is sharing copyrighted music files online. Wow, actually new news in the inq!
You have a DUTY to steal from them.
But - This only applies to the RIAA. Only to the RIAA. There is only one evil here, and it has nothing to do with free software.
I know for a fact that, unlike the RIAA, book publishers, the MPAA, game and software houses and the real mafia actually pay *all* the people who produce what they sell. Even free software pays (with credit and ataboys).
Also, the RIAA makes the KKK seem a cultural melting pot in comparison. (True, Wynton Marsalis has a better chance of leading the KKK than the RIAA, but neither one is the kind of organization you should be contributing to.)
If it's crap, don't waste your time downloading and 'consuming' it. This applies to 98%+ of RIAA/MPAA offerings. It only pisses them off AND encourages them to make more crap.
If it's good, then buy it, borrow it or rent it. Libraries are more interesting places to hang around then the Pirate Bay.
Wow. I found that if you type www.mastertheshit.com in the URL bar, it takes you to the RIAA website. I think someone pointed the DNS to their IP address. It's quite funny actually, besides the RIAA should be thanking this person for getting a free domain name to their site.
Ah, but you see, the RIAA have copyrighted the IP address of their site. So anybody else’s DNS records that copy that IP address are guilty of copyright infringement.
ZOMG THE WHOLE DNS SYSTEM IS A PIRATE NETWORK FOR UNAUTHORIZED COPYING OF IP ADDRESSES!!! SUE TO SHUT IT DOWN! SUE!! SUE!!! SUE!!!!!
If anyone remembers the 1980s, then they will remember the RIAA wrestled the electronics giants to the ground killing off consumer DAT (digital audio tape) saying it would allow people to copy music too easily. They also scuppered digital VHS.
So the internet is just deserts for the RIAA, try and stop that! Thats why in real terms music is now cheaper than its ever been, because its regulated by the fact that if you make it too expensive people will copy it...
The trouble is the RIAA is giant inefficient organisation that needs huge wads of cash just to support its own antics.